Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Morgan Mandel-Small Press Author Does Indie



My Take on Non-Traditional Publishing
by Morgan Mandel

Celia asked for my take on non-traditional publishing. My first two books, Two Wrongs and Girl of My Dreams, were published by a small publisher, Hard Shell Word Factory. I was allowed to give input on the covers, such as what colors I liked, but had no real say on that or other important aspects, such as price and release date.

For over a year and a half I concentrated on publicizing Girl of My Dreams and spent very little time looking for a home for Killer Career. When I realized I’d wasted valuable time, I sought to remedy the situation. The fastest way to do that was to self-publish Killer Career.

I have to say I worked harder on Killer Career than the other two books combined. Not only did I learn how to start my own company, Choice One Publishing Co., but I also had to control every aspect of getting the novel ready for printing. I chose Lightning Source, a division of Ingram, as the printing company because of their quality craftsmanship, reputation and distribution policy. I chose Helen Ginger as my editor, because I respected her abilities and wanted my book to appear as perfect as possible. Among other things such as which countries my book would be sold, I picked out a cover, the font, even the color and texture of the paper.

The process was very time consuming. Although the stigma is lessening, self-publishing in many circles is still looked down upon, even if you present a quality product. Because of that, I had to make sure my book turned out as professional as possible.

Because I have the full rights to Killer Career, with the help of a friend to whom I paid $60.00, I was able to set up a Kindle edition and name my price for the book. Lightning Source already had set up the print edition at Amazon and at a number of other venues, such as Barnes and Noble.com.

I’ve also made autographed copies of Killer Career available at Tony Burton’s Digital Bookshop at http://digital-bookshop.com , as well as e-books other than kindle. Tony charged me $30.00 to set up the e-books, which seems reasonable to me.

I may set up an account at Smashwords, but haven’t done so yet. I’ll probably offer an e-book there about my self-publishing venture at some point, but so far I’ve been busy on other projects, and I haven’t had a chance to get it ready.

CreateSpace and Lulu were considerations I rejected, since Lightning Source seemed to offer more value and distribution for the investment.

My advice is, if you want to self-publish, think it through and do it right. I’m glad I did it. I learned a lot and I’ve received some great reviews for the book. I may try it again, but first I need to finish my works-in-progress before I decide.






Morgan Mandel





          




LINKS:

For Killer Career - http://digital-bookshop.com/  for autographed copies of the book

Killer Career, plus Two Wrongs and Girl of My Dreams are all at Amazon.com  in print and kindle. The easiest way to find them is to go to Amazon.com and type in Morgan Mandel.

Romantic Suspense, Killer Career, gets 5 stars from The Midwest Book Review





30 comments:

  1. Hey Morgan,

    Your efforts with "Killer Career" definitely paid off. It looks great and it's a fabulous read!

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  2. Thanks for the mention, Morgan. The Digital Bookshop is a fairly new venture, but it's getting busier and busier. And of course, the more titles we have, the more traffic we get in response.

    While self-publishing can be a big challenge that not every author is willing—or has the skill set—to tackle, you've made it work for your books. Hats off to you!

    The Digital Bookshop
    http://www.digital-bookshop.com/

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  3. I'm glad you both like Killer Career. I'm glad I took it on, but it was a time killer. (g)

    I love your books also, Debra.
    And Tony, I wish you much success with your Digital Bookshop. It's an idea whose time has come.

    Morgan Mandel
    http://morganmandel.blogspot.com
    http://ourlittlerascal.blogspot.com

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  4. Celia,
    Thanks for hosting me here. I'm really appreciating those book covers of yours in the sidebar with all those sexy cowboys. Marvelous!

    Morgan Mandel

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  5. Morgan, all you did to make Killer Career happen amazes me. And I love that your sharing your experience with the rest of us.

    Helen
    Straight From Hel

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  6. And you were a great editor for Killer Career, Helen.

    Morgan Mandel

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  7. You've cone a great job with your book, Morgan, and thanks for sharing some of your process here. I am very interested in the whole continuum--major, independent/small, self--and always looking to hear new perspectives on it.

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  8. Jenny, I think you're smart to keep an open mind. We don't know what the future might bring in publishing.

    Morgan Mandel
    http://morganmandel.blogspot.com
    http://ourlittlerascal.blogspot.com

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  9. Good morning Morgan and Celia, This was a very informative post, Morgan. I think so many people can benefit from your experience. Indie publishing is a growing industry and a viable entry into the market. Wishing you continued success.

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  10. Congrats on all the hard work and time you put into getting your stories out there, Morgan. And thanks to you and Celia for this informative post today! :)

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  11. Thanks for stopping by, Maggie and Marilyn.

    Much success to both of you as well!

    Morgan Mandel

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  12. Good article. You lay out a lot of the detail needed to publish without the connection to other publishing houses until after initial release.

    I think you took the right approach and I suspect that bricks and mortar stores will begin to see that providing shelf-space for books from independent and smaller publishers is only good business.

    One of the things authors and others could do to help the process along is to stop using pejorative labels like vanity and self-published. Publishing a book is publishing a book. The product should stand on its own, and buying decisions shouldn't be based on the decisions made by the publisher.

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  13. Carl,
    I agree whole heartedly. The business is changing and soon others will see that if they haven't already.

    Morgan Mandel

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  14. Sounds as though you've approached your books very professionally, Morgan. It's people like you who will help gradually remove the stigma of self-publishing.

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  15. Thanks, Bob.
    I did my best with Killer Career. It was a great experience, but time consuming to get it all done. Still, if I'd gone with another publisher than myself, it would have taken a lot longer to get it out.

    Morgan Mandel
    http://morganmandel.blogspot.com

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  16. Morgan, I found your article very interesting. Where I've fallen down has been to keep writing during the year my book was under contract because I was so snowed by the whole promo/mktg aspect of it.

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  17. Promo is a lot of work, Katie. I'm not sure if that was always the case, but it sure seems to be now. It's hard to get anything else done in the meantime.

    Morgan Mandel
    http://morganmandel.blogspot.com

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  18. Hi Morgan,
    Congratulations on being brave enough to take the plunge like you did. Sounds like it was the right move for you.

    Regards
    Margaret

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  19. Sorry I'm turning up so late, Morgan. Busy day with the kids.

    Having read Killer Career, I can tell how hard you worked on it. The quality of the writing was there; your editor did a great job because I didn't pick up the numerous typos or inconsistencies so many self-published books suffer from; I liked the cover art, and it's a fabulous read. Remember, I pretty much ignored my family so I could read it. :)

    If anyone is interested in my review, they can find it at The Book Connection

    Great article!

    Cheryl

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  20. Morgan, I am amazed all over again when I read about your experience with self-publishing. What holds me back is all the work on the business side of it that I don't want to make time for, and you did it all while working another full-time job. Whew, I don't know how you did it.

    I did something similar when I was executive producer for a film project. I took care of the business side of the development, while raising 5 kids and doing freelance writing, but I was much younger then.

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  21. Thanks for stopping in, Margaret, Cheryl and Maryann.

    Yes, it was a lot of work. I'm hoping if I do another, the next won't be as difficult.

    Then again, every new book is a challenge anyway!

    Morgan Mandel

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  22. Fantastic post, Morgan! I would have chosen Lightning Source over the other two hands down...Lulu's books are very very expensive when you go to sell them.

    I'm interested in your Kindle edition...I'm hearing that authors are making good money off of their Kindle editions...what's your take on that?

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  23. Dorothy -
    Thanks for stopping by. About the kindle edition - It depends how much you want to go down on price. The ones really getting the hits are in the 99 cent to $1.99 range. They sell through volume.

    I'm considering doing my self-pub book instruction book in that range, because it won't be as many pages. First, I have some finishing touches to do on it.

    Morgan Mandel

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  24. What a great post, Morgan. Great advice and information. The ability to control most every aspect of your book and its publishing would be very valuable. I never even took into consideration or put thought into the fact that some publishers take so many rights away from an author.

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  25. Morgan and Dot, Marilyn Meredith is pricing the latest Rocky Bluff P.D. Kindle edition at $1.99 to see how it does.

    It will be very interesting to see how it works. The paperback will be around $12.99, I think. She talked about it on her blog this past week.

    Cheryl

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  26. April and Cheryl,
    Thanks for stopping by. Yes, the idea of control is appealing, isn't it. We have so little control of our lives in general these days.

    Morgan Mandel
    http://morganmandel.blogspot.com

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  27. Morgan, thanks for the info. I've been considering taking that route on some of my books. However, like you say, it is time consuming. That's my major hold back, right now.

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  28. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us, Morgan. It's nice to hear some good things about self-publishing. Much luck to you with sales!

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  29. Thanks for stopping by, Savanna and Linda.

    Morgan Mandel
    http://morganmandel.blogspot.com

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  30. Morgan,

    Great information - thank you!

    Congratulations on your success as a publisher and an author!

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